Francis E. GIBBONEY, section 3, Riley Township, was born in Bedford County, Pennsylvania, December 14, 1829. His parents, Benjamin and Margaret (KENDALL) GIBBONEY, were also natives of Pennsylvania, residing there until 1838, when they moved to Licking County, Ohio, and from there in May, 1846, to Louisa County, Iowa, where our subject attained his majority.

In 1856 he went to Kansas, and lived in that State and Missouri until the breaking out of the war of the Rebellion. In June, 1861, he went to Fort Leavenworth and enlisted at the first call for three years' volunteers, and was assigned to Company C, First Kansas Infantry. He participated in the battle at Wilson's Creek, where the gallant General LYONS was killed. His regiment lost heavily, Company C having twelve men killed and thirty-six wounded. Mr. GIBBONEY was shot through the right arm, and so disabled as to necessitate his discharge. He now receives a pension of $10 a month.

After his discharge he returned to Louisa County, and in 1869 located in Ringgold County, buying his present homestead which contains eighty acres of good land, which he has brought under cultivation, it being wild land when he bought it. He also owns ten acres of valuable timber land.

Mr. GIBBONEY was married October 17, 1872, to Amelia A. BUTLER, who was born in Belmont County, Ohio, January 21, 1841, daughter of Thomas and Sarah A. BUTLER. They have had two children - Benjamin Thomas, who died in infancy, April 14, 1874, and Sarah Margaret, born November 4, 1877.

Mrs. GIBBONEY is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church. Mr. GIBBONEY is a member of Garnet Lodge, No. 416, F. & A.M., and Ellis C. Miller Post, G. A. R. In politics he is a Republican. He was one of the patriotic "Free-State" men who fought under Jim LANE to save Kansas from having slavery forced upon her by the slaveholders of the South, and has in the past suffered much for the cause of freedom and the Union.

Mr. GIBBONEY's father died in Muscatine, Iowa, in 1850, and his mother in September, 1878. He has three sisters living - Mrs. Elizabeth F. BROWN, of Riley Township; Mrs. Jane G. CROW and Mrs. Sarah M. WOODRUFF, of Louisa County. His only brother, James B. GIBBONEY, was a very prominent citizen of Louisa County, and at the time of his death was county auditor, a position he had filled ten years.

NOTE: Francis E. GIBBONEY died January 16, 1917. Amelia A. (BUTLER) died April 7, 1902. Francis and Amelia were interred at Rose Hill Cemetery, Mount Ayr, Ringgold County, Iowa. Francis' father Benjamin GIBBONEY was born in 1798, and died in 1850. Francis' mother Margaret (KENDALL) GIBBONEY was born in 1796, and died in 1878. Benjamin and Margaret were interred at Grandview Cemetery, Louisa County, Iowa. James B. GIBBONEY was born in 1835, and died in 1883 with interment at Grandview Cemetery, Louisa county, Iowa. Sarah M. (GIBBONEY) WOODRUFF was born in 1827, and died in 1894 with interment at Grandview Cemetery, Louisa County, Iowa. Jane (GIBBONEY) CROW was born in 1823, and died in 1893 with interment at Grandview Cemetery, Louisa County, Iowa.

SOURCES:
Biography & Historical Record of Ringgold County, Iowa, p. 256, 1887.

WPA Graves Survey

Transcription and note by Sharon R. Becker, January of 2009

Biographical Sketches Pages Index: A - F,   G - L,   M - R,  S - Z